Hotel-call



(No Model.)

E. J. COLBY.

Patented Mar. 26, 1889.

E mm .2 2.5550223" 9559. 5 ur 5 m1 HOTEL CALL.

9 WW M UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDIVARD J. COLBY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HOTEL-CALL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 400,304, dated March 26, 1889.

Application filed May 10, 1888. Serial No. 273,393. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. COLBY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Hotel-Calls,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to electric hotel-calls, and has for its object to provide convenient means whereby an automatic call may be sent from the office to each room at any appointed hour, and whereby similar manual calls may be sent from the office, and whereby a manual call to one or more rooms may be sent at the same time, if desired. These objects I accomplish by means of the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, where- 1n Figure 1 is a view of the call mechanism and connecting-board with diagrammatic View of lines reaching to a series of bells in the rooms. Fig. 2 is a detail of the commutator. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the current established. Fig. 4 is a cross-section through the clock-mechanism commutator. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the rollers upon which the electric pulls are secured. Fig. 6 is a cross-section of the same.

Like parts are indicated by the same letter in all the figures.

A is ahotel-clock, with hands B B. Beneath this clock is placed the commutator, consisting of the insulating-disk O, with metallic strips D D thereon, arranged as shown in Fig. 2. Secured to the sleeve which carries the hour-hand is the arm E, with the brush F, which latter is adapted to pass over the metallic strips D. There are forty-eight of the strips D, so that the brush F will change from one strip to the next adjacent strip every fifteen minutes. Leading from the clock mechanism is the wire G, which passes through the battery G, and then connects with the wires G which lead to the room or to the alarmbell in the room, as indicated by the letters H H. Thence the wire returns to the annunciator, (indicated by the letter J,) being an ordinary electric hotel-annunciator with a drop for each room, though of course this annunciator can be dispensed with, as hereinafter explained. From the annunciator passes a wire for each room to the roller K, and about this roller there is a flexible connector, L, terminating in a numbered tag, M. The tag of course bears the number of the room with which its conductor is connected. The connecting-board N is provided with a series of hooks, 0, each of said hooks representing a given hour or division of time, and each connected with that one of the strips D D over which the brush F will pass at the time-indicated by the figures adjacent to such hook. The connection is made by means of the wires P, as indicated in diagram. In the diagram the annunciator is not shown. The roller K may be journaled in insulated compartments, as indicated in Fig. 5, and covered by the case B. The conductor leading from the room to the annunciator or directly to the roller is indicated by the letter S.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows: When a guest announces at the hotel-oflice that he desires to be called at a given hour, the tag representing the number of the room which he occupies will be pulled down, thus uncoiling the flexible conductor L from the roller K, and the conductor will be fastened upon the hook which represents the hour at which he desires to be called. Thus when the occupant of room No. 1 desires to be called at half-past twelve oclock, the tag No. 1 Will be placed upon the hook 12.30. Now it is evident when the hands of the clock reach the hour of 12.30 the brush will be upon that trip D whose wire P is connected with the hook marked 12.30, so that at that hour a circuit will be made as follows, as indicated in the diagram: from battery G, through conductor G to the room; thence along conductor S, through the roller K, conductor L, tag M, hook O, conductor P, strip D, brush F, arm E, mechanism of the clock, and conductor G, and the bell in room 1 will be sounded. The strips D, as indicated in the drawings, are narrow, so that the brush will not remain on them for any length of time, and the bell will soon cease ringing. If the conductor leading from the room to the office passes through the electric annunciator, the annunciator-drop indicating the same room will fall down and indicate that the room has been called. The rollers K are provided with internal springs,

h, which tend to wind them up, so that when the tag is unhooked it returns to its normal, position out of the way.

Illaving thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

In a hotel-call, the combination of the clock A, provided with the dial and hands in the ordinary manner, with an insulating-disk, C, back of the dial, commutator-strips D D, secured upon such insulating-disk in a circle concentrio with the dial of the clock, an arm, E, and trail or brush F, adapted to rotate with the hands of the clock and to travel over the commutator-strips, a board, N, having thereon a series of hooks, O 0, each designated by an hour and minute mark, a series of wires extending one from each commutator-strip to the corresponding hook, an electrical circuit in metallic connection with the clock mechanism and containing a battery and wires passing throughout the hotel, a series of bells,

one in each room, in circuit, a wire passing from each of such bells, a spring-roller, K, in the hotel-oliice, a series of such rollers, one for each room or hell, a series of tags, one for each room and roller, numbered to correspond with the room and perforated at its lower extremity, a series of flexible connectors, each connecting one tag with its proper bell and roller, so that by connecting any of said with any of said hooks a circuit will be made through the clock, battery, bell of the connected room and connectors, tag, hook, wire connecting such hook with the eo'nnnutater-strip, and thence through the brush and arm at the hour when such brush is on the strip which corresponds with the number indicated on the hook to which the tag is at i tached.

EDWARD J. COLBY. Vitnesses:

(101m L. (JADWALLADEl-i, CELEs'rE I. CHAPMAN. 

